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Quadrafire Mt Vernon fireplace insert

I have had my Quadra-fire fireplace insert (60,000btu's) for 4 months now and havn't had any problems at all with it. I installed it myself. It took 4 BIG guys to lift onto my mantle, but now it is absolutely gorgeous in my formal fireplace wall. It has the mahogany porcelan finish. I heat the top two levels of my 3500 sq ft quad-level home.
(The lower two levels are an unused In-laws qtrs and a basement). My Dec. corn bill was $95 and last years gas bill for Dec. was $230. I use it on the corn setting at a -5 level to tone the flame size down. The auto ingite and the self-cleaning firepot work flawlessly. I've never had a corn-burner before, but I can't imagine being without those features. The window lifts off and it cleans completely and effortlessly with "windex wipes" I found in my wife's cleaning stuff. Being lazy, I installed a sort of dedicated 3" vacuum port and remote power switch hidden in a nearby mantle bookcase that terminates outside the house at a shopvac. Makes cleaning the unit very quiet and dust-free. The wife loves that. The local grain elevator says the price of corn is kind of high now. Can't wait until I can save even more.

A lot of times you can get pellets cheaper than corn, might want to look into that. You can also burn a corn / pellet mix.

Glad to hear someone is having good luck with this thing. We have only sold one so far and the guy was installing it himself. Have not heard anything from him so it must be working! Or he doesn't have it installed yet.

Mt Vernon Line

Ok now for all you Mt Veronon Owners who got sucked in by the hype here is what in my opinion you should do.

First get Angry.
Hearth and Home in Colville Wa built a substandard product that should have never left the drawing board. they have systematically sacked everyone except their top heavy management staff and basically put them o the line to try and fix this aproxiamately 3.2 million dollar fiascal. the total termination of employees was somewhere between 100 to 500 employees. most of them that had been their for anywhere up to 13 or better years.

Second Box that piece of **** back up and have them pic it up. Fire is something to never mess with especially in a home while sleeping my position on this subject is simpe, if an item like this isn't right the first time then there is no second chances. Get it out of my house as quickly a possible.

In my opinion this product isn't ready for market. it like an operating system for a computer that can be upgraded when it fails to work properly. this is something that very well could take a life with no time for fixes or do overs.

I've worked for the company and love alot of their long standing products but in my own opinion I reinterate that this product needs more engineering and better QC. The fact that Hearth and Home Tech in Colville Washington where these stoves are made generted a 3m dollar loss on this and sacked alot of people t receprocate the losses shoud be enough to merit concern.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

My Job Back Ground is Construction, Electrical, and Manufacturing and what I know about these hings and the troubles plaguing this Mt Vernon line worries me.

Originally Posted by ;1291761

Deja Vue all over again!

Since installation of the stove on 11/11/06, the stove has only worked 8 out of the 18 days and is now once again not working.

It stopped working on Sunday (11/26/06) with the "Conv Blower Jammed" error on the display.

Contacted the dealer, early Monday morning with information as to error. Dealer contacted Quadra-Fire as soon as they could get through to them on the phone, then called me back saying the parts (blower and wiring harness) will be shipped "Next Day" to them for installation.

Well now it is Tuesday. At noon, I checked with dealer to see if they did indeed receive the parts. No, they did not receive any of the parts. At the latest, these parts should have been received and installed the next day!!!

I called Quadra-Fire to get information as to when I could expect the parts to arrive. They refused to give me any information, saying I will need to contact the dealer. Expressed my disappointment with their (Quadra-Fire) service. They gave me a case number and said they will check it out. I presume this may be something like the question I had previously posted on Quadra-Fire's web site and didn't get an answer back till 7 days later. This is not at all expectable. Very poooooor service to consumers or to me anyway.

I am getting very concerned for when and if I have any problems with the stove a year from now. Will they be giving me this same support? This was a new stove and has been in service for only 18 days, but has only worked 8 out of these 18 days and is not working at this time.

Could it be that I got a lemon?

Well, this is the final straw. I am not going to fix this baby this time. If the stove is not working when I get home from work tomorrow evening, it will be removed and set outside.

This is a great looking stove and when it is working, it does produce heat and dumps the ashes. But, at this time, I really would not recommend this stove to anyone.

Mt Vernon Line

Ok now for all you Mt Veronon Owners who got sucked in by the hype here is what in my opinion you should do.

First get Angry.
Hearth and Home in Colville Wa built a substandard product that should have never left the drawing board. they have systematically sacked everyone except their top heavy management staff and basically put them o the line to try and fix this aproxiamately 3.2 million dollar fiascal. the total termination of employees was somewhere between 100 to 500 employees. most of them that had been their for anywhere up to 13 or better years.

Second Box that piece of **** back up and have them pic it up. Fire is something to never mess with especially in a home while sleeping my position on this subject is simpe, if an item like this isn't right the first time then there is no second chances. Get it out of my house as quickly a possible.

In my opinion this product isn't ready for market. it like an operating system for a computer that can be upgraded when it fails to work properly. this is something that very well could take a life with no time for fixes or do overs.

I've worked for the company and love alot of their long standing products but in my own opinion I reinterate that this product needs more engineering and better QC. The fact that Hearth and Home Tech in Colville Washington where these stoves are made generted a 3m dollar loss on this and sacked alot of people t receprocate the losses shoud be enough to merit concern.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

My Job Back Ground is Construction, Electrical, and Manufacturing and what I know about these hings and the troubles plaguing this Mt Vernon line worries me.

Originally Posted by ;1291761

Deja Vue all over again!

Since installation of the stove on 11/11/06, the stove has only worked 8 out of the 18 days and is now once again not working.

It stopped working on Sunday (11/26/06) with the "Conv Blower Jammed" error on the display.

Contacted the dealer, early Monday morning with information as to error. Dealer contacted Quadra-Fire as soon as they could get through to them on the phone, then called me back saying the parts (blower and wiring harness) will be shipped "Next Day" to them for installation.

Well now it is Tuesday. At noon, I checked with dealer to see if they did indeed receive the parts. No, they did not receive any of the parts. At the latest, these parts should have been received and installed the next day!!!

I called Quadra-Fire to get information as to when I could expect the parts to arrive. They refused to give me any information, saying I will need to contact the dealer. Expressed my disappointment with their (Quadra-Fire) service. They gave me a case number and said they will check it out. I presume this may be something like the question I had previously posted on Quadra-Fire's web site and didn't get an answer back till 7 days later. This is not at all expectable. Very poooooor service to consumers or to me anyway.

I am getting very concerned for when and if I have any problems with the stove a year from now. Will they be giving me this same support? This was a new stove and has been in service for only 18 days, but has only worked 8 out of these 18 days and is not working at this time.

Could it be that I got a lemon?

Well, this is the final straw. I am not going to fix this baby this time. If the stove is not working when I get home from work tomorrow evening, it will be removed and set outside.

This is a great looking stove and when it is working, it does produce heat and dumps the ashes. But, at this time, I really would not recommend this stove to anyone.

Our Mt Vernon had so many problems right from the start..it didn't start..the circuit board was replaced..the blower motor was replaced...and when it finally started to run, we noticed about two days into operation, BANG...we figured it was heat expansion but he tech was certain it was the auger...he replaced the auger, and within a minute of start up, BANG again...we've requested our money back, because the tech said it would require a major overhaul of the stove to fix...we haven't received our money back yet, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the company will come good for it...this stove had been talked up so much that we were sure this would be the best and last stove we would ever need to buy...when it wouldn't even start, our dealer informed us that this is the first production year and that all of the "kinks" are still not out of it...it's a hell of a "kink" when it won't even start!...but now, our problem is noise, like at 11 second intervals..we feel so disallusioned by this stove..for the time lost from work while the tech was here to try to fix this stove, and for the over three grand it cost to buy this stove, i would not recommend this pellet stove ...

Here is the location of the Manufacture of this Stove line.
Hearth & Home Technologies
1445 N Highway
Colville, WA 99114-2008
(509) 684-3745

Hon Industries is their Primary Company. Now Hearth and Homes Contracts comes up for renewal with this company I believe around Sept. 2007 trust me with this ammo you should see some quick results. Here is Hon's Link

HNI corp.

This stove is made by Quadrafire out of Colville, Washington. Quad is part of Hearth & Home Technologies along with Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Fireside Furnishings, and Fireside Hearth & Home (installation/ retail outlets), which comprise the largest fireplace company in the world. You can find these brands at www.fireplaces.com HHT's headquarters is in Lakeville, Mn. HHT is part of HNI Corp., which used to be known as HON Industries. HON makes office furniture and is based in Muscatine, Iowa. There is no renewal--Quad and HHT are owned by HNI. The President of HHT is Brad Determan while the CEO of HNI is Stan Askren.

Quad makes a lot of good products as does the rest of HHT. Their Castile insert is a good stove. However, as I stated in an earlier post, in their lust to fulfil their position as market leaders, they bit off more than they could chew with this new stove. It is a quantum leap. They did not merely improve one or two components. It is an entirely new concept. They faced many challenges in design, supply, reliability, etc. About this time last yr., it looked as though they had the major bugs worked out so they projected a June launch. However, that dragged into the Fall. Ready or not, they had to ship units to meet committments to dealers. Unfortunately, it still wasn't ready. They are quietly pulling stoves from dealers, installing retro kits then shipping the same stoves back to the dealers. If they had committed proper resources to the project much earlier, this could have been avoided but engineering was pressed to roll it out ready or not. Obviously, they lost the gamble.

HHT's Senior Leadership has an obsession with pushing new unproven products out to meet unrealistic timelines and carrying too many models that are not properly engineered or reliability tested. They pinch pennies on quality and reliability or as they call it "Lean Manufacturing".

As for dealing with this situation, they have gutted their technical pool so there's virtually no one left to service such problems. They are running on a skeleton crew while almost all the old knowledgeable experienced ones are gone. Now that the economy is showing signs of life, they have to start rebuilding their technical base. However, in a specialty industry, such as the hearth industry, experience and knowledge does not grow on trees. The myopia of their leadership to artificially boost stock prices for the short term by cutting irrreplaceable staff will get them in the end. They could not see that companies need to invest in people and not just physical assets. They paid too high a price just to make the Board happy. Now the question is, will the HNI Board clean out the mis-managers at the Top and salvage their market dominance or stay on a path of destruction. The entire hearth industry is watching this one closely.

Hearth Man you sound book learned but lack onsite knowledge.

Hearth man sounds like he knows something, but it sounds like alot of diversion and hooey than an explaination on how to resolve this Mt Vernon problem. a bit of advise Hearth Man is this, Brevity when quoting corp. propaganda.

Second Hearth Man Unless you live in Colville WA. then you really don't know squat about the goings on at the factory/plant. Please refrain from blanketing the facts with hypethetical assumptions. you know what they say about assumptions, their the mother of all F@*K UPs.

the information for resolution on my previous entry is a good guideline however the one I forgot to include. Grab the dealer you bought it from by the ear and give it a good twist, then tell them to remove the stove and replace it with a better line of stove. sorry for that mistake.

Third to show that Hearthman Loves Corp. Prop is this quote of his "If they had committed proper resources to the project much earlier, this could have been avoided but engineering was pressed to roll it out ready or not. Obviously, they lost the gamble." You see the plant doesn't operate as You imply Hearth man but more strickley they believed the stove perfect and ready for manufacturing. and the production line wasn't completed till Sept and on time. so where ever you got the information from on the summer start was again Propaganda. What the problem was after the line went up was this.

One - the Inspection agent who orders and test each part failed in his task and apparently all the lots wasn't being tested for functionality. also it appears some of the electrical parts was not the coded parts needed for this application. He was Sacked when the the bottom fell out on this endeavor.
Second - and this one I love the most because it was uncharacterist of the company but it happened. The hoppers had chipped areas and cracks on them so the solution was to duck tape and paint the areas to cover up the repairs instead of reorder the parts and build the units correctly. LOL HAHAHA this I found out a week ago from a worker on that line.
Third - the ash tray that dumps sometimes will dump the whole tray out of it's carraige. Forth - the porceline ones I wouldn't be surprised if in time the porceline doesnt start to flake or chip away from the cast. apparently they can't get the batchs right for the porcelian/cast compatibility.

Now these are only the in factory issues I know of on the Mt Vernon Line.

So Hearth man unless you have worked in the plant as I have, then your explainations are nothing more than Corp. Propaganda and Hot Air.

Bottom line is, the whole process of this Mt Vernon Line is plagued with alot of issues and too many Yes Men and not enough No Man. Unfortunately they sacked a hugh portion of their labor force and kept the Idiot Yes Men.

I like the fact your in PA. We have enough Hot air blowers in our state. Just look who we have for a govenor.

Sincerely
Kelly

Originally Posted by hearthman

This stove is made by Quadrafire out of Colville, Washington. Quad is part of Hearth & Home Technologies along with Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Fireside Furnishings, and Fireside Hearth & Home (installation/ retail outlets), which comprise the largest fireplace company in the world. You can find these brands at www.fireplaces.com HHT's headquarters is in Lakeville, Mn. HHT is part of HNI Corp., which used to be known as HON Industries. HON makes office furniture and is based in Muscatine, Iowa. There is no renewal--Quad and HHT are owned by HNI. The President of HHT is Brad Determan while the CEO of HNI is Stan Askren.

Quad makes a lot of good products as does the rest of HHT. Their Castile insert is a good stove. However, as I stated in an earlier post, in their lust to fulfil their position as market leaders, they bit off more than they could chew with this new stove. It is a quantum leap. They did not merely improve one or two components. It is an entirely new concept. They faced many challenges in design, supply, reliability, etc. About this time last yr., it looked as though they had the major bugs worked out so they projected a June launch. However, that dragged into the Fall. Ready or not, they had to ship units to meet committments to dealers. Unfortunately, it still wasn't ready. They are quietly pulling stoves from dealers, installing retro kits then shipping the same stoves back to the dealers. If they had committed proper resources to the project much earlier, this could have been avoided but engineering was pressed to roll it out ready or not. Obviously, they lost the gamble.

HHT's Senior Leadership has an obsession with pushing new unproven products out to meet unrealistic timelines and carrying too many models that are not properly engineered or reliability tested. They pinch pennies on quality and reliability or as they call it "Lean Manufacturing".

As for dealing with this situation, they have gutted their technical pool so there's virtually no one left to service such problems. They are running on a skeleton crew while almost all the old knowledgeable experienced ones are gone. Now that the economy is showing signs of life, they have to start rebuilding their technical base. However, in a specialty industry, such as the hearth industry, experience and knowledge does not grow on trees. The myopia of their leadership to artificially boost stock prices for the short term by cutting irrreplaceable staff will get them in the end. They could not see that companies need to invest in people and not just physical assets. They paid too high a price just to make the Board happy. Now the question is, will the HNI Board clean out the mis-managers at the Top and salvage their market dominance or stay on a path of destruction. The entire hearth industry is watching this one closely.

To sincere Kelly,

As a former disgruntled line worker, Im sure you are unhappy with Quad. However, as a line worker, you don't know everything about this stove, the mfr. or the parent company. I'm not sure of your meaning when you refer to my "Corp. Propaganda" Kelly as I do not work for them nor am I making excuses for them. I don't appreciate your personal attacks on me either, especially since we seem to agree on a number of issues.

The company has a fix kit for this stove--give it a try. The local dealers sold what they were given and are doing what they can to deal with it--cut them some slack. This stove will be a beast of a performer once the bugs are worked out. Just like concept cars or any other cutting edge product, there is bound to be a learning curve. I think those of you who bought the Mt. Vernon knew there was a risk and accepted it. Just be patient.

Kelly, the initial target was for a summer launch so stoves would be in the dealers hands in time for the Fall burn season. Nobody from the hearth industry in their right mind would deliberately start production in Sept. Apparetly, you were not privy to all the communications regarding the progress with the launch of this product.

My beef was with upper leadership because I know first hand many of their policies and failures. If there was a change in administration, this company will continue to lead the industry. Right now, it's on a course for tough times and a lot of that can be attributed to the misguided policies of upper mgt.

Ok Hearth Man in your wisdom I see your point. However This Item is not a Midget Car of experment to be played with in someones house it is a fire device. as for starting dates on a line we are all privy to info. that is how the company works, and I'm not disgruntled only disappointedm, big differance.

Bottom line people is this.

One - if something cost 150.00 or better it had better work or it goes back. Especially 3000.00 dollar item not probably counting installation labor.

two - Unlike a Computer or a concept cars or any other cutting edge product this is something that has a flame and electrical wiring in it. I believe in darwins theory of elimination. However i'm not going to be an example for it. I still suggest getting the thing out of ones house and get something differant till this item has been properly fixed and on the market for sometime. by then the price might have dropped also.

I'm sorry Hearth Man I would never ask anyone to give something a chance if it could possibly mean my families safety.

Colville Wa Pop. around 5,029 local economy is mainly this factory and a boat manufacture. we all drink, sociallize and are friends around here. so believe me we know pretty much all going ons.

Originally Posted by hearthman

As a former disgruntled line worker, Im sure you are unhappy with Quad. However, as a line worker, you don't know everything about this stove, the mfr. or the parent company. I'm not sure of your meaning when you refer to my "Corp. Propaganda" Kelly as I do not work for them nor am I making excuses for them. I don't appreciate your personal attacks on me either, especially since we seem to agree on a number of issues.

The company has a fix kit for this stove--give it a try. The local dealers sold what they were given and are doing what they can to deal with it--cut them some slack. This stove will be a beast of a performer once the bugs are worked out. Just like concept cars or any other cutting edge product, there is bound to be a learning curve. I think those of you who bought the Mt. Vernon knew there was a risk and accepted it. Just be patient.

Kelly, the initial target was for a summer launch so stoves would be in the dealers hands in time for the Fall burn season. Nobody from the hearth industry in their right mind would deliberately start production in Sept. Apparetly, you were not privy to all the communications regarding the progress with the launch of this product.

My beef was with upper leadership because I know first hand many of their policies and failures. If there was a change in administration, this company will continue to lead the industry. Right now, it's on a course for tough times and a lot of that can be attributed to the misguided policies of upper mgt.